ABSTRACT
To deny female violence is to deny female agency. In the passage cited above, De Zulueta describes how the reactivation of traumatic memories can lead to violence towards an infant, and how dissociation, as a psychological defence against pain, can protect the violent mother from fully recognising her actions. This passage illustrates the nature of reactivated pain and demonstrates how mothers who were themselves neglected or abused in childhood can re-enact destructive patterns with their own children.
